Red and Black Tragedy

Also upon his return to the United States, Fort-Whiteman initiated the disbanding of the African Blood Brotherhood – a black self-defense organization which, although only having a peak membership of less than 3,000 members, operated a magazine which in the words of the Brotherhood’s founder and leader Cyril Briggs in a letter to historian and ex-communist Theodore Draper “had a peak circulation of 36,000 and reached many Negro communities throughout the country” and had become the Communist Party’s most successful tool in their attempts to gain a black American audience after its leaders had been recruited into the Communist Party in 1921. In the Brotherhood’s place, Fort-Whiteman and black Communists formed the Party-controlled American Negro Labor Congress [ANLC], hoping to continue the work they were doing under the Brotherhood on a more party-line basis. It was a disaster. In his letter to Draper, Briggs wrote:

After I, Dick Moore, and some other members of the Supreme Council joined the CP, we sought to and succeeded in establishing a close relationship between the two organizations. This was successful, however, only in northern industrial centers. Few of our Southern members joined the CP or followed us into the American Negro Labor Congress when we decided to liquidate the Brotherhood and turn our efforts to building the Congress.

An FBI report from Chicago dated November 5, 1925 recounts the events of the ANLC founding conference. The report noted:

- October 25th, 1925: “Lovett Fort-Whitman, national organizer of the Congress, made the principal talk. In brief, his remarks were that ‘the aim of the congress is to mobilize and coordinate into a fight-machine the most enlightened and militant and class conscious workers of the negro race in the struggle for the abolition of lynching, Jim Crow’ism, industrial discrimination, political disfranchisement, and segregation of the race.’ He attacked President William Green of the American Federation of labor as misrepresenting that body, stating that the negroes want no Jim Crow unions. Continuing, he said: ‘We demand that the American Federation of labor tear down the barriers that segregate us from the white workers and keep us out of the white unions. We colored workers will, through this congress, correct the mistakes of our white brothers, who have been foolishly misled by the wrong kind of leaders.’ He concluded with a class-conscious appeal, stating that ‘the natural enemies of the negro are the boss, the landlord and the capitalist’. ”22 (Fort-Whiteman’s conclusion about the enemy of the black worker being “the capitalist” is in direct contradiction with the attitudes of the black leadership of the time, including Marcus Garvey, who, as recounted by Walter Williams, urged “blacks to undercut union wages as a means to employment and combating union racism, [stating] ‘the only convenient friend the Negro worker or laborer has in America at the present time is the white capitalist ’.” )

There was a significant change in Party policy in 1928. Making the final move in the power struggle that had engulfed the Soviet leadership since the death of Lenin, Stalin made his move against fellow Bolshevik Nikolai Bukharin and, having gained the upper hand, purged the Comintern of Bukharinites by initiating a shift to an anti-reformist ultra-left. This era would come to be known as the “Third Period.” As a result, the Comintern was able to convince Harry Haywood, one of the black Americans recruited by Fort-Whiteman, to adopt a new policy. The new policy came as a surprise to the new ANLC head chosen for the mission, William Nowell. Nowell – years later, after he defected from the Communist Party and became an anti-Communist – recounted to police investigator Jacob Spolansky how he had received his instructions during a visit to the Soviet Union:

“Comrade, [Nowell was told], “we consider you the best available choice for our Negro program in the South.”

“Yes?”

“We have decided that a separate Negro republic should be established in the South, a buffer state under our leadership.”

The details were filled in for Nowell, and, as he later explained to [Spolansky], the program called for the Negro population of the United States, a minority group which the Soviet has long courted and coveted, to play a featured role in the timetable of the revolution prescribed for America.

Nowell examined the drawing for a few seconds and then replied, “Yes, it looks like a map of part of the southern portion of the United States.”

The Communist leader grunted. “We call it the ‘Black Belt,”’ he explained. “It represents more than fifty counties in which is concentrated the heaviest Negro population.”

The fantastic scheme of the Russians called for intensive missionary work in that area to arouse the Negroes to form their own separate republic.

“Thus,” Nowell was told, “when the revolution is launched by the workers of the North, at our signal, the Negroes of the South, well organized, will deliver a crushing attack from the rear against capitalism. Do you understand?”

Oh please. Feigned concern for the well-being of black people in America. I've seen the racist comments that litter this forum when anything related to blacks is mentioned ("mrbean's" tiresome Amos n' Andy routine comes to mind); it's second only to the rabid hatred shown here for Muslims. Why don't you stop worrying about communists, blacks, Democrats, and Muslim boogeymen for a moment, so that you can sit back and reflect on the fact that the two-bit demagogues that write for this site and are associated with the Orwellian-named "Freedom Center" have been inspiring people like the white supremacist who shot up a Sikh temple in WI. Your chickens are coming home to roost, bigots.

Once again the negroes like Nakba lay false claims to victimology demand monies from the productive white people of the world. Recall, it was negroes who sold negroes to slavers in the first place. However, that aside, every negro living in the Western Hemisphere would not statistically exist at all anywhere had their ancestors not been brought from Africa. The average life expectancy today of negroes in the west is in the upper 60's to the lower 70's and in Africa and in all African countries between 31 years of age with a high average of 40 years in South Africa. This is what Africa run by negroes is like almost everywhere. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTUw0vKksGc

dennis x

It's a shame that your so-called negros are winning medals to make low lifes like you feel good about your selfs. Perhaps upon thier returns you can call them nergros to thier faces and offer them some food stamps. How old is Nelson Mandala?

Ghostwriter

dennis x,you're just as bigoted as mrbean is and you prove it time and again.

dennis x

Not as much. I don't go out of my way to offend, but I wouldn't back down. For every action there's a reaction.

tagalog

The accusation of racism is once again used in yet another attempt to silence any kind of remark that might not be supportive of racial blackness as infinitely virtuous and generally superior.

To suggest, even hint, that the statements made by the people who run this website and those who comment on those statements, are somehow an encouragement to a person who would shoot up a Sikh temple (or any other identifiable racial group) is to be so defamatory that it takes the breath away.

dennis x

Then you should choke to death!!!! You find nothing defamatory about beanboys comments or the many tumbs ups he gets for those comments.

meyou

I Dear Nakba, I'm going to say the rosary for you.

Goemon

I normally don't comment on posts by people too foolish to be salvageable as a useful human being, but I want to point out that it is not feigned concern for black people. This article is posted because it interests right wingers. I am definitely on the right and I have my criticisms for black culture, but as a race of people I have no problem with them or having them in my neighborhoods or as my boss at work. I wish them success and happiness in life, not a life of crime, drugs, abortion and dropping out of school.

waynamal

Nearly every single time the Left respond to logic and the truth, they have to trash people first. They will demean, belittle and use obscenities. To bad, poor things.

Waynamal

Muslims are the "boogeymen".

Ghostwriter

While I agree with Nakba about mrbean's idiotic "Amos n' Andy" routine,it's disgusting as well as tiresome and unfunny,the rest of his stuff is dumb. I'm not a bigot and I've condemned it many times. To be honest,I don't see where Communism would have helped ANYONE,blacks included. They would have been worse off in a Soviet America and anyone who spoke against it would either be jailed or dead. I don't think the Communists really cared about black people. They only wanted to use them as props to attack America.
Oh,and by the way Nakba,the guy who shot up that Sikh temple was a demented loon as well as a racist. Thankfully,the guy is dead and roasting in hades where he belongs. Please think before you write,that is if your capable of it.

It is doubtful the catastrophe has enough gray matter to think or reason, only act on instinct like an animal.

ILIA

Curiously, Comrade Nakba1948, your name refers to the founding of Israel, which you perceive as the biggest disaster, and I perceive as a ray of hope, a nod from God that he exists. BTW, Israel is the only country that airlifted thousands of black Ethiopians from the barbarism to the light of civilization. As you know, in Arabic 'black' and 'slave' are still, to this day, the same word: 'abd'.

TY, AlgerHiss, I grew up through the cold war and I remember the air-raid sirens, "duck and cover" training, the pictures of communist victimization. Then in HS Political Science I learned the truth of what communism can do to the human psyche by breaking the body, mind and spirit in a Gulag, but that was only scratching the surface of the real horrors I have learned of lately. There is more icing to be put on this cake and Obama is part of the story…Oh, the horror, the horror, the horror!

Nakba1948 is part of the problem rather than the solution.

mlcblog

Does Nakba have a mind? or is it spouting and repeating emotional ideas?

al Kidya

Is this to be continued or something? I want the rest of the story of what Nowell did and why he decided to jump the commie ship.
This article blows me away! I was on the edge of my seat.

Schlomotion

Mr. Mitsotakis has done a wonderful job combating the problem of nonexistent Negro Communists in the present day. With any luck, people can take the startling revelations presented in this essay and go back in time to 1919 and profoundly affect the functioning of the early 20th Century I.W.W.

tagalog

By 1919, the IWW was, except for a handful of Wobbly unions, pretty much defunct. Most of the IWW leadership was arrested and tried for subversion in 1917. About ten thousand IWW members and sympathizers were arrested, and many were tried. That gutted the organization: so much for revolutionary anarchosyndicalism in America. At least 14 of them received 20-year sentences for violation of the Espionage Act (which is still on the books). The leader of the IWW at the time, Big Bill Haywood, appealed his 20-year sentence and while the case was up on appeal, ran to the Soviet Union, where he lived for the rest of his life. I think it's safe to assert that the IWW was largely non-functional as of 1919.

tagalog

Non-existent "Negro" Communists in the present day? Well, the actual present, who knows? No doubt there are some, but I don't know who they are. But as for people like Richard Wright, Paul Robeson, and numerous others, there certainly were black card-carrying Communists in the not-so-distant past.

The FBI claims that if Martin King Luther, Jr. wasn't a Communist, he was mighty close to people who were.

mlcblog

It's common knowledge. The author is being obtuse.

mlcblog

Wait! I accidentally hit Like! Oops.

aspacia

Van Jones, and many who have and do surround Obama are avowed communists.

AlgerHiss

Schlomotion:

“nonexistent Negro Communists in the present day”

How can you examine the voting patterns of today’s American Black and come to that conclusion? This group of citizens vote just as hard-core leftist as they possibly can.

Election after election, Black folks, usually in the 90% area, vote for huge, mammoth government. They are NOT a freedom and liberty crowd.

When she had a tooth pulled the root was shaped like a member of the Mongolian race's teeth. Yet to outward appearance she couldn't be more white.

My family, that couldn't be more white, marries whom we please because we don't believe in stereotypes. For instance, I married a Jew because he was an outstanding man with such a strong personality I felt like he swooped down and sucked me into his engines.

Another family member is marrying a half negro. The young man is very handsome and determined to have her because she's a prize endowed with the family's good looks and intelligence.

So don't tell me I'm prejudiced because I disagree with your prejudices, Nabka, prejudices that reveal your inability to discern illusions from reality.

Western Spirit

I forgot another niece is married to a Sikh. So I'm beginning to think we not only don't believe in stereotypes and believe people are people,but, we're fascinated by difference instead of being afraid of it. The problem is people really aren't all that different.

Western Spirit

It's cultures that are different. Some lead to slavery and some lead to freedom. So must be judged and discerned between if we want to remain free.

Lisa Richards

You did a great job Mr. Mitsotakis in discovering these lost documents on Frank Marshall Davis communist life and how he mentored Obama, Jarrett, and Axelrod. This truth about Davis must be exposed. Thank you.

Steve Chavez

If you go to CPUSA DOT ORG and then link on to their "People's World, " and after glazing over their articles, I challenge you to tell us the difference between their talking points and articles of interest and those of the DEMOCRAT PARTY!

IT'S ALWAYS FUN to google your favorite person in Congress and add "Communist Party" or "Peace and Justice" and several of their other fronts, to see for yourself that these Democrats ARE IN BED WITH COMMUNISTS.

Today's Communists/Democrats/Obama can meet with every enemy of the United States but can't dare meet with Republicans?

mlcblog

Thank you. Well said. I have a lot of fun with Google myself.

BLJ

The truth always hurts. The Democrats….err……I mean Communists can handle the truth.

BLJ

I meant "can't"

mlcblog

of course!
(You can use the Edit feature.)

http://oldschooltwentysix.blogspot.com/ oldschooltwentysix

Considering the unjust state of blacks in the Jim Crow American South, it is understandable that the Communists would reach out.

Capitalism has negative effects that too often are denied. Not to mention the vestiges of slavery.

Even so, why do those who want to bring the system down, to insert their own, often worship a model that is more repressive toward individuals?

dennis x

Communism is still a better choice than the crap that we deal with it here in amerikkka. Just read the posts. Please call someone a negro to their face, please make my day!

mrbean

The hyphenated term African American is a political term invented by the Reverand Jesse Jackson in the 1980's and the word "negro" is the proper name for the race. The use of the term amerikkka tells me you are just another hating whitey negro like you hero Reverand Jermiah "Chimp Out Sermonizer" Wright.

aspacia

So move to Cuba.

bo

Such an abrupt ending !
This is fascinating history !!
Please write more !!!

Ghostwriter

dennis x,why don't you talk to people who have LIVED under Communism? I can tell you this,their stories are heartbreaking and you'd be grateful you live in America. Besides,you're as much a bigot as any Klan member and I'm not fond of them either. Oh,and for the record,I'm white and I've known a few black people. You continue to prove that idiocy isn't confined to one race but can be found throughout human civilization.

dennis x

I've know a few white people and yes I've talked to people from communist countries and the "new boss is just like the old boss". True I'm not a fan of white people , but unlike the klan I've never lynched one, yet. For the record please explain the acceptance of the racist comment at this web site, ie bean boy etc.

Ghostwriter

I've attacked mrbean numerous times for his idiotic "Amos n' Andy" routine. It's dumb and serves no useful purpose. But,you're as much a bigot as he is,dennis x. Not every white person is like what you describe. Besides,you often sound like a disciple of the appalling Louis Farrakhan,the David Duke of black America. His bigotry is as disgusting as Duke's is. Maybe you should examine yourself before decrying the bigotry of others.

Ghostwriter

And dennis x,to be even more honest,I don't think the Communists cared a whole lot about black people. They wanted to use them as props to bash America. Although American society was racist at the time,I doubt Communism would have helped matters any. It would have made things worse for EVERYONE,blacks included.

UCSPanther

Nicolae Ceasescu was a notable example of the "intolerant communist". He hated Roma and other minorities, obsessed over creating Romania's version of the master race and was deeply homophobic.

In short, he was no better than Ion Antonescu or Corneliu Codreanu, both fascists who also were notorious for their racism and violence.

cjk

If White people were even half as racist as you, all your people would be back in chains idiot.